hospital, institution for the care of the sick, maintained by private endowment or public funds or both. General hospitals minister to all types of illness, while special hospitals are concerned with only one disease or group of diseases. Many hospitals are maintained solely for the treatment of military personnel and veterans. Once a pesthouse for the care of the indigent and the friendless, with a quality of treatment and nursing from which few emerged alive, the hospital has flourished with the progress of medicine and surgery. Toward the end of the 19th cent. hospital care was revolutionized by the discovery of anesthesia, improvement in sanitation, establishment of hospital nursing schools, and other advances. Hospitals in large cities have become huge medical centers equipped not only to treat the ill but also to further the education of the medical staff, train a nursing staff, perform vital research into the cause and cure of disease, and help the patient with convalescent and social problems.

foundling hospital, institution for receiving and caring for abandoned children. In Athens and in Rome until the 4th cent., unwanted children were exposed, or left to die, in appointed places. The first modern foundling hospital was established by the archpriest of Milan in 787. Other cities throughout Europe followed this example. One of the best-known of such hospitals was founded in 1739 in London by Thomas Coram. In the United States, the first foundling hospital, St. Vincent's Infant Asylum, was begun in 1856 by Roman Catholic nuns in Baltimore. It was followed shortly by the founding of other infant asylums supported by religious denominations or private philanthropies. In both Great Britain and the United States foundling hospitals have for the most part been replaced by foster care programs under the supervision of state welfare agencies. Other maternal- and child-care programs are financed by municipal agencies or under social security programs.

Bethlem Royal Hospital, the oldest institution for the care and confinement of the mentally ill in England, and one of the oldest in Europe. A priory in 1247, the building was converted to its later usage c.1400. The hospital moved in 1675, in 1815, and to its present location near Croydon in 1930. The word bedlam, which is derived from the hospital's name, has long been applied to any place or scene of wild turmoil and confusion. Presently, Bethlem Royal Hospital is connected with the Univ. of London's Institute of Psychiatry, and is part of the Maudsley Hospital.

Bellevue Hospital, municipal hospital, in New York City. America's oldest public hospital, Bellevue developed from a "Publick Workhouse and House of Correction" commissioned in 1734. The establishment changed sites several times before 1811, when the site upon which it now stands was purchased. In 1860 the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, the first of its kind in the United States, was founded. The first nurses' training school in the United States was established there in 1873 and grew into one of the best-known nursing schools in the nation. The largest U.S. city hospital, Bellevue is a noted psychiatric therapy and research center. Other programs of note include radiation therapy and physical and occupational rehabilitation programs. Until 1968, Bellevue was affiliated with the medical schools of Columbia Univ. (from 1882), New York Univ. (1882), and Cornell Univ. (1898); in that year Columbia and Cornell withdrew, leaving the hospital in sole affiliation with the New York Univ. School of Medicine.

Institution for diagnosing and treating the sick or injured, housing them during treatment, examining patients, and managing childbirth. Outpatients, who can leave after treatment, come in for emergency care or are referred for services not available in a private doctor's office. Hospitals may be public (government-owned) or private (profit-making or not-for-profit); in most nations except the U.S., most are public. They may also be general, accepting all types of medical or surgical cases, or special (e.g., children's hospitals, mental hospitals), limiting service to a single type of patient or illness. However, general hospitals usually also have specialized departments, and special hospitals tend to become affiliated with general hospitals.

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